With the recent nomination of Olivér Várhelyi from Hungary as Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, we look with interest to the upcoming hearing in the European Parliament to understand his views on the important role that animal health plays not only for animal welfare, but also for public health and pandemic prevention, food safety and sustainable food production, as well as mental health.

As stated in the mission letter, we look with anticipation to the revision of the animal welfare legislation during this mandate, accompanied by an impact assessment as outlined in the Strategic Dialogue report, and we welcome the potential expansion to cover exotic animals.

We take note however that the mission letter principally refers to ‘Health’ with only one mention of ‘One Health’. Reading between the lines, the health portion and indeed the call to support a ‘strong, competitive and innovative pharmaceutical sector’ largely appears to refer to human health.

We find it highly regrettable that there is no direct reference to animal health. Whereas it is a priority to invest in preventing non-communicable diseases, we believe the call for ‘stepping up preventive health’ should also cover addressing zoonotic disease risks and the potential for pandemics caused by infectious diseases. Our sector also has a very positive experience to share for instance in the area of taking action to ensure responsible use of antibiotics in animals, playing our part in addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR). 

If approved by the European Parliament, we look forward to providing further information as to how our innovative animal health sector has supported the EU thus far in moving from a very fragmented national approach to animal disease control to a more harmonised system of animal health measures, disease surveillance, diagnosis and control. We look forward to more recognition being given to the central role that animal health can play in a strong and healthy future for Europe.

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